Page 44

RUBY FLUNG THE gas tank around the bungalow, ensuring each rug, photo frame, and antique was doused in the fuel.

Pieces of Edward’s life littered the small house, old pictures of his wife and daughter, knickknacks accumulated through time, binder after binder containing the stories of the thermophiles he created.

“Are you sure we don’t need these? It seems fucked up to just erase thermy histories like this,” she asked, assuming the wireless headphones were picking up her voice.

“I helped Edward digitize them a while back,” Lucas responded in her ear.

“What about his family’s pictures?”

“He’s dead, so he won’t miss them.”

The fumes singed her nostrils as the gasoline soaked through the living room’s carpet and slipped across the kitchen tiles.

“If it makes you feel any better, it’s not his actual house. He relocated after the TCA burned down his previous one.”

“It does make me feel a little better.”

She made her way toward the front porch, tugging along a giant, black duffel bag stuffed with stolen research and organic materials.

She pulled a pack of matches from her pocket, struck a pinch of them against her thigh, and tossed them onto the pooled fuel.

Phlogiston lifted from the wooden fixtures as they caught the flame.

“Don’t miss any of the canisters.”

“I got them,” she assured. “How long do I have until you’re here?”

Lucas hesitated.

“I’m not coming to pick you up.”

Ruby stilled. “This place is in the middle of nowhere. It’s literally fifty miles back to the motel. If you didn’t want to drive back, you shouldn’t have just dropped me off. I’m not fucking walking.”

“I’ve sent someone. They’ll be there shortly.”

“Who?”

Lucas exhaled, and she could hear the guilt slithering into his tone. “Give him a chance, okay?”

Ruby’s spine went rigid. “Lucas?”

The Bluetooth beeped. Connection lost.

A slow, crawling dread settled into her bones.

The night air bit at her skin as she stepped out of the burning building, flames licking at the sky behind her. The streets were empty, silent, the neighboring houses long since abandoned. She adjusted the strap of her bag, shifting the weight against her shoulder, and turned—

Stopped.

A car idled at the curb. A familiar figure leaned against it, hands shoved into his pockets.

Her pulse slammed against her ribs.

Jonah.

Unshaven. Dark circles under his eyes. It had only been two weeks since she last saw him, but he looked like hell.

He stood, eyes drinking her in, a man desperate to memorize every missed detail. “Hey, Rubes.”

Her fingers twitched at her side, itching to punch something. Maybe him.

She bristled. “Why are you here?”

Jonah straightened, taking a hesitant step forward. “I have new information on the TCA.”

“Why would I need that? What information could you possibly have that Lucas doesn’t?”

His jaw tightened, but he didn’t look away. “He isn’t as informed as you think. They started to suspect him a few months ago. I stole files yesterday that I need the two of you to see.”

The ceiling groaned, chunks of support beams splintering to the ground.

Emerald-colored phlogiston floated through the ceiling.

Ruby couldn’t resist the deep inhale, body warming and strengthening, before asking, “Why would they trust you more than Lucas? Because you’re their uncaring little puppet? ”

Jonah flinched but didn’t step back. “I care, Ruby.” His throat bobbed, like he swallowed something painful.

“I know I should’ve told you. I should’ve stopped you the day you found out and told you everything.

I should’ve—” He exhaled sharply, raking a hand through his hair.

“I thought I could protect you from the truth.”

Ruby stared at him, her fury ice-cold now.

“You knew about the cure,” she scoffed. “And you didn’t tell me.

Didn’t even fucking hint at it. You let me help the TCA kill all those thermophiles while you played bounty hunter.

You’ll never understand what that feels like.

Every time I blink I see their faces behind my eyes.

Every time it’s quiet I hear Gerald’s screams. I will have to live with that for the rest of my existence. ”

Jonah sucked in a breath like she’d gutted him. His shoulders curled inward, fingers twitching at his sides. “I didn’t—I didn’t think—”

“No,” she cut him off. “You didn’t.”

Silence stretched between them, thick as smoke.

Jonah broke first. His voice was raw, wrecked.

“I had no way to get it without them, Ruby. I thought—I thought if we kept going, if we just powered through for a few years, we would get the cure and move on and you would never have to know what it cost. When they gave you the cure, I thought I’d let you believe—” He sucked in a sharp breath, squeezing his eyes shut.

“I was going to let you believe it was something new, something they had just discovered. With everything that’s happened to you, everything you had to do to survive, I wanted you to have a chance at something normal without the guilt. ”

Ruby’s nails dug into her palms.

“I’ll never be able to undo this, Ruby,” Jonah said hoarsely. “I know that. But let me help stop the TCA. Please.”

She could hear it—the pleading, the guilt, the way his words wavered under the weight of what he’d done.

Good.

She wasn’t ready to forgive him. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

She shouldered past him and wrenched open the car door, setting the bag in the backseat.

“Drive,” she ordered, climbing in without another word.

Jonah hesitated only a second before obeying.

The road stretched ahead of them, dark and empty. City streets faded into suburban roads. They took an exit, then another, making their way to the neighboring smaller town where Lucas waited.

Forty-five minutes in and Ruby couldn’t stand the silence any longer.

She had so many questions, ones Lucas probably could have answered.

A small part of her wanted to wait for Jonah himself, hoping she would see him again.

Maybe Kavya had been right. Maybe there really was a thin line between love and hate.

“How long was your sister a thermy before they gave her the cure?”

Her sudden question in the quiet car startled Jonah. He whipped his head toward her, a hesitant hope falling over his features.

He cleared his throat. “Only a few days.”

“And then they just…released her back into the public?”

His grip tightened on the steering wheel. “No. She’d actually only been out for a week before you saw that video.” He smiled weakly, but it lacked humor. “I guess she wanted to celebrate waking up with a concert.”

“Waking up?”

“They kept her in a coma after giving her the cure. Told me they’d release her after you’d gotten settled into your new role.

Which was really just your old role but with us living together.

They released her on the condition that you didn’t find out about the cure and that she didn’t remember what happened.

She didn’t. She thought she and her boyfriend were in a car accident. ”

“Are you still an agent?”

“Would I be picking you up if I was?”

She glared at him from the corner of her eye. “Maybe rethink sarcasm, given the status of our relationship.”

“Got it.” His lips quirked. “Although you admitting we still have a relationship is doing wonders for my confidence.”

“Happy to help.” She sunk further into her seat.

“I haven’t officially quit, but between stealing confidential files and releasing the captive thermies at the Denver base, I think they got the message.”

“Did you get Ellie out?”

“I did. She’s staying with a friend of Lucas’s for now, another thermy, up at a farm in Iowa.”

A tree shaped air freshener swung from the rearview mirror.

It wasn’t green, but pink, and smelled of something sickly sweet.

It flung around with every slight shift of the car, repeatedly smacking into the mirror.

Ruby ripped it from the mirror, snapping the string, and tossed it out of the window.

She refused to look at Jonah directly. “What took you so long?”

“I had to help my parents and sister get out of the country before I could come find you. They’re on another extended European vacation. My mom thinks I’m running from the mob but is too scared to ask me outright.”

“Did you think about telling her the truth?”

“Would you want to know?” He ignored the way she shifted in her seat, angling away from him.

“If you were human, ignorant of thermies and everything that comes with them, would you want someone to tell you that a bacteria floats in the air, lingers in your lungs, crawls around inside of you while it waits for enough of it to gather to take over your body?”

The hum of the heater filled the silence. Outside of the car, the landscape shifted back into something urban. Motels and fast food restaurants lined the street, blending together in a swirl of neon lights as they whipped past.

Ruby frowned, nose wrinkling. “No, I wouldn’t want to know. I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering when, or if, it’ll hit. And I wouldn’t wish the knowledge on anyone. It’s a curse.”

“You sound like the TCA.”

The quiet remark cut through Ruby. She shook her head.

“That’s not why the TCA keeps it from the public. The government doesn’t give a shit about its citizens outside of ensuring they remain inside of their little boxes. I don’t know why, yet, but they want to use thermies, and the knowledge of thermies, to their advantage.”

“I know why. That’s why I’m here.”

They pulled into the parking lot of the motel her and Lucas were staying at. Jonah’s hand wrapped around her wrist as she reached for the door.

She glanced at him over her shoulder. “What?”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’ve already said that.”

He shook his head. “Not nearly as much as I should. And I won’t ever stop saying it. You were my partner and I should have told you. If you let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you.”

THE MOTEL PARKING lot lay quiet, swallowed in the kind of stillness that only came in the dead of night.

The neon sign buzzed, casting jagged, bleeding light across the pavement, its flicker like the stutter of a failing heartbeat.

Somewhere beyond the lot, a car engine rumbled and faded into the distance, swallowed by the heavy press of heat and asphalt.

The air smelled like rain that would never come, thick and cloying, settling deep in her lungs.

Ruby stood in the parking lot, motionless, her fingers curled around the key in her pocket.

She wasn’t tired—she couldn’t be tired—but something inside her had settled into a weary ache, a weight that stretched down to her bones.

The kind of exhaustion that wasn’t in the muscles, but in the marrow.

The kind that made her feel like if she stood still long enough, she might sink into the pavement and disappear.

Lucas waited inside of the room, slouched behind the cheap motel desk and typing away at his computer. “Welcome back.”

Ruby rolled her eyes and sat on one of the two twin sized beds. The comforter scratched at her fingertips. She made wide, sweeping motions with her hands, mapping their path along the cheap blanket. “Our surprise guest has something to tell us.”

Jonah nodded, shut and locked the door, closed the blinds, then took a seat on the other bed. It sagged beneath his weight. “The TCA has the cure.”

Ruby scoffed. “Duh.”

“No, sorry, should have been more clear.” The heat kicked on, the radiator rattling behind them. “They’ve begun mass producing the cure for project Great Barrier.”

Lucas’s throat bobbed. “Shit.”

“Okay. But that’s a good thing, right? That’s exactly what we wanted them to do.” An odd disappointment settled in her, as if everything leading up to this point had been for nothing.

“They’re going to weaponize the bacteria.” Jonah held up a small, gray USB drive and stood.

Ruby’s mouth fell open. “What the fuck? Why?”

“It’s biological warfare. They’re going to cripple the economies of rival countries.” Lucas accepted the drive, shoving it into the computer.

“How would that work?” Ruby questioned.

File after file loaded on Lucas’s screen.

He glanced through them as they popped up.

“They release it as concentrated gas into public places. It’s colorless, odorless.

It cripples their workforce, overloads their healthcare systems, creates an economic panic that only we, the US, can fix.

We control the cure supply, we could sell it for a ridiculous price, draining the country's resources, or offer it selectively to allies.”

“That’s got to violate dozens of international laws.” Ruby seethed. “And wouldn’t the other countries retaliate? It could start a war. It could start a lot of wars.”

“For what? A natural outbreak?” Jonah shook his head. “If we delayed the release of the cure, the timeline would seem like just an independent discovery. There will be no proof it was intentional.”

“It’s going to destroy entire nations,” Lucas confirmed.

Ruby flopped onto her back, letting the news settle over her. “Shit.”

The radiator turned off, leaving the room silent.

“Unless.” She sat up and patted the duffel bag with a wicked grin.

Lucas nodded. “Unless.”

Jonah looked between the two. “Unless what?”

“Unless we weaponize the bacteria first.”